Ancaster home uses Halloween decorations to raise money for Sick Kids Hospital

When the Halloween season arrives, Nick Bond decorates his front lawn. He does it every October, without fail for the past 15 years. It started small, but because of Bond’s love for Halloween it slowly grew to the extensive display it is today.

In more recent years, the Halloween display at Bond’s Ancaster home has served as more than just entertainment. He uses the display as a way to fundraise for Ronald McDonald House and Sick Kids Hospital.

When Bond’s son, Lachlan, was a baby, he developed a blood clot in his heart and risked losing his life.

“I got a phone call at work that my son had passed away at McMaster,” Bond said. “I flew from Oakville to Hamilton, and they saved him in Hamilton. We got rushed to Toronto, they saved him in Toronto, and we lived there for almost five weeks, I think it was.”

Lachlan is now six years old and sports a scar on his chest. Bond wanted a way to give back to the hospital to thank them for saving his son.

“We do this all for Ronald McDonald and Sick Kids Hospital,” Bond said. “Last year we raised just shy of $2,000 and hopefully this year we’ll go above and beyond.”

The Halloween display takes up every single inch of space in the front yard. It consists of huge inflatable decorations, plastic skeletons, masks of gruesome faces and anything else spooky Bond can get his hands on.

The display is so large, it has even started to spill onto their neighbour’s lawn.

“We love it, yeah, it just gets bigger and bigger actually,” Bond’s dad Ken Bond said.

“We also take over my neighbour’s front lawn because we outgrew ours. He’s okay with us doing that for sure, I’m guessing eight years we’ve been going next door.”

This year, Home Hardware of Ancaster contributed a $300 gift card to Bond so he could stock up on even more decorations.

“I love it. Every minute of it,” Bond said.

Bond is planning to hire a DJ for the night of Oct. 31 and make it a memorable experience for the kids in the neighbourhood.